Editor’s Note: This is a prayer by Dr. Bill Monce the founder and President of BiblicalTraining.org. Dr. Monce also serves on the Committee for Bible Translation (which is responsible for the NIV translation of the Bible). He has written the best-selling biblical Greek textbook, Basics of Biblical Greek, and many other Greek resources. He blogs regularly on Greek and issues of spiritual growth. The full scriptural references were added by me.
Thank you, Father, that we are not alone, that we are part of your community, your family, adopted along with our brothers and sisters. Thank you that you are a father to us, not some dispassionate deity but the perfect Father who is concerned with the details of our lives, even details like finding toilet paper in the midst of a crisis. Unlike our earthly fathers, you are our “heavenly” Father, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who sits in heaven and does all that you please.
Psalm 115:3 (NLT2) 3 Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.
It is to you that we pray.
In the midst of the Coronavirus, may our faith be strong and our actions resolute, not making you seem small in the eyes of our friends but displaying your holiness to all. May your name — your character — be preached even without words to our neighbors, friends, and co-workers. May we not act like those without hope.
Ephesians 2:12-13 (NLT2) 12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
You are king over our lives, and we live in your kingdom on earth. May this time of fear give us opportunities to share with others how we can be concerned but not fearful, and how they too can come into your family and under your kingship. Your family grows in difficult times; may it be so now.
We confess that we do not always do your will as we should. We do it imperfectly, slowly. Rather, may we be quick to listen and joyfully obey, knowing that someday we too will see the beginning from the end and that all of life will make sense.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT2) 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
As the lines in the store lengthen and the shelves empty, we acknowledge that you are the giver of every perfect gift.
James 1:17-18 (NLT2) 17 Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.
We ask you, our Father, to provide what we need as you do for the birds of the air.
Matthew 6:26-27 (NLT2) 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
Do not let us be like those outside your family who put themselves first and hoard in fear. May we accept what we have and share what we can with others.
I confess that I have let fear creep into my life. Afraid of sickness. Afraid of death. Of fearing that I can’t be with my son and daughter-in-law at the birth of my first grandchild. But your perfect love casts out fear.
1 John 4:18 (NLT2) 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
Help me to live as one who has hope. Help me to hold onto life as on to a thread, willing to let it go if it would advance your kingdom.
You made this world good, and we can see your goodness in everything we see. And yet our sin and Satan have corrupted so much of your world. Sickness, pain, and death are everywhere because we as a whole have abandoned your ways. Help us to see evil for what it is — a perversion of what you made — and please protect us from the effects of evil, and especially from the Evil One.
All things are yours. To you belong all power and glory. Until we see you face to face, may your Spirit strengthen us to be faithful children to the world around us, sharing hope and not despair, not living as those who are not your family live, but living as the prized possession of our Heavenly Father who protects us under his wings and will bring us safely to our eternal home. Until then, may we be found faithful.
Psalm 19:14 (NLT2) 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Thank you, Father, that we are not alone, that we are part of your community, your family, adopted along with our brothers and sisters. Thank you that you are a father to us, not some dispassionate deity but the perfect Father who is concerned with the details of our lives, even details like finding toilet paper in the midst of a crisis. Unlike our earthly fathers, you are our “heavenly” Father, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who sits in heaven and does all that you please.
Psalm 115:3 (NLT2) 3 Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.
It is to you that we pray.
In the midst of the Coronavirus, may our faith be strong and our actions resolute, not making you seem small in the eyes of our friends but displaying your holiness to all. May your name — your character — be preached even without words to our neighbors, friends, and co-workers. May we not act like those without hope.
Ephesians 2:12-13 (NLT2) 12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
You are king over our lives, and we live in your kingdom on earth. May this time of fear give us opportunities to share with others how we can be concerned but not fearful, and how they too can come into your family and under your kingship. Your family grows in difficult times; may it be so now.
We confess that we do not always do your will as we should. We do it imperfectly, slowly. Rather, may we be quick to listen and joyfully obey, knowing that someday we too will see the beginning from the end and that all of life will make sense.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT2) 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
As the lines in the store lengthen and the shelves empty, we acknowledge that you are the giver of every perfect gift.
James 1:17-18 (NLT2) 17 Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.
We ask you, our Father, to provide what we need as you do for the birds of the air.
Matthew 6:26-27 (NLT2) 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
Do not let us be like those outside your family who put themselves first and hoard in fear. May we accept what we have and share what we can with others.
I confess that I have let fear creep into my life. Afraid of sickness. Afraid of death. Of fearing that I can’t be with my son and daughter-in-law at the birth of my first grandchild. But your perfect love casts out fear.
1 John 4:18 (NLT2) 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
Help me to live as one who has hope. Help me to hold onto life as on to a thread, willing to let it go if it would advance your kingdom.
You made this world good, and we can see your goodness in everything we see. And yet our sin and Satan have corrupted so much of your world. Sickness, pain, and death are everywhere because we as a whole have abandoned your ways. Help us to see evil for what it is — a perversion of what you made — and please protect us from the effects of evil, and especially from the Evil One.
All things are yours. To you belong all power and glory. Until we see you face to face, may your Spirit strengthen us to be faithful children to the world around us, sharing hope and not despair, not living as those who are not your family live, but living as the prized possession of our Heavenly Father who protects us under his wings and will bring us safely to our eternal home. Until then, may we be found faithful.
Psalm 19:14 (NLT2) 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
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